The Vernacular - Who Needs It?: A visual enquiry into design process and strategy

Abstract

"What can the study of the everyday offer the professional discourse of communication design? Are we secure enough within the confines of our profession that we would not be threatened to discover something that could 1 change our perspectives and working strategies? Perhaps we can learn something from non-designers. As a design educator, I continually ask whether the education of designers creates better communicators or merely better technicians. We see vernacular artifacts on a daily basis. These can be as familiar as garage or yard sale signs or lost pet posters. The quality that connects these artifacts is often their homegrown quality. No technical knowledge is required. They emerge out of need rather than from reflection and the attempt to persuade. We rarely consider a yard sale sign a threat to our professional expertise. However, the examples used within this thesis might give us more pause for thought."